Infinite Gestation

Beginning with praise, transitioning to criticism and ultimately reaching a state of forgiveness, the panel embarks upon its ongoing Dystopian Novel Series with the granddaddy of the dystopian novel, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. (Coincidentally recorded on the podcast's one year anniversary). Completed in 1921 and published in 1924 (with an English translation), Zamyatin's forging of the genre predates pretty much anything you might mistakenly argue came first. Harbor's Metropolis or the the Fritz Lang film adaptation? Sorry. London's The Iron Heel? Nope. Huxley's A Brave New World? Come on, man! Trust us, we looked this shit up. Today's episode was brought to you by the Numbers PF-237, GK-42 and SZ-119 as well as the word "insidious" and several pronunciations of the word "integral". Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links We (novel) Yevgeny Zamyatin The Iron Heel by Jack London Metropolis by Thea von Harbou Metropolis (1927 film) - Fritz Lang Voyager

Infinite Gestation gets A Visit from the Goon Squad on this episode covering Jennifer Egan's 2010 Pulitzer Prize winning novel of the same name. The book stands more as a study on the emotional effects of time and memory (and life) on a group of loosely associated characters and less as a straight forward narrative in the traditional sense. With a realistic portrayal straying from cliched tropes of the record industry (including that of a Brady Bunch episode), the novel certainly completes its goals masterfully, leaving little wonder regarding the wisdom of its Pulitzer win. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links Jennifer Egan jenniferegan.com A Visit from the Goon Squad The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury Pastures of Heaven by John Steinbeck Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout Steely Dan Daniel Johnston Dead Kennedys PCU (1994 film) - Hart Bochner Empire Records (1995 film) - Allan Moyle Peep Show - Hat Game - Indie Bands High Fid

Patrick and Grant take on Stephen King's 11/22/63 as well as the Hulu miniseries of the same name. Best described as literary fiction with elements of science fiction and the supernatural (as only Stephen King can render them) 11/22/63 serves more as a love letter to a bygone era of post war America with all the prosperity associated with the Eisenhower era and less an investigation into the mechanics and milieu of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (a la Dan Delillo's Libra). Hulu's miniseries (with such personnel as James Franco, J.J. Abrams & King himself) serves as a wonderful companion piece to the novel, accentuating and enhancing its finer qualities while omitting (and at times better explaining) lesser characteristics. In both mediums, the absence of an argument for conspiracy  is a disappointment, except to Sam, but he's not in this episode so who cares? Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links 11.22.63 Stephen King 11.22.63 (Televisi

Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler is in a class of its own. This postmodern exploration of the novel contains substantial sections written in the second person (yes, SECOND person), so that the reader themself becomes a character in a quest to find (initially) the remainder of the novel begun in the first chapter. A literary adventure thus ensues, carrying on throughout the subsequent first chapters of ten different novels, stringing said reader along a series of plot lines, deceptive (and duplicitous) characters, novels within novels (within THE novel), multiple points of view and so on. Short of complicating things further, check out the episode and then read the book. We pinky promise you won't be sorry. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links If on a winter's night a traveler Italo Calvino At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails (with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger, Maurice

John Steinbeck's fifth novel, In Dubious Battle, marks a radical shift in the author's work while serving as an interesting precursor to The Grapes of Wrath. Essentially concerned with the labor struggles of exploited fruit pickers, the novel illustrates the emergence of Steinbeck's social consciousness and further exemplifies some of the core themes he would later become remembered for. Special thanks to Patrick for the selection! Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links In Dubious Battle John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath Eugene Debbs Pascal "Pat" Covici Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters Working Days: The Journals of the Grapes of Wrath Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (Sam's book reference) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Yoknapatawpha County (the unpronounceable county)

In celebration of Indiana's Bicentennial, Infinite Gestation discusses The Magnificent Ambersons, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Booth Tarkington. Georgie Minafer (third generation Amberson), with his desire to become a yachtsman,  personifies the height of smug aristocracy by his refusal to embark upon a career or make a life for himself. The arrogant assumption that he might live upon his family's wealth and status indefinitely is sorely mistaken, for it is the end of a gilded age for the Amberson family. Once the epitome of wealth and the toast of the Midland City (a thinly veiled Indianapolis), the realized potential of the automobile and industrialization of the city causes massive growth that edges out much the old guard in favor of families of "new money".  The Ambersons are among those left behind, though Major (the patriarch) manages to conceal the state of such affairs until after his death, forcing his heirs to start from scratch and make their way in a city that no longer remembers the Amber

Making no apologies for worshipping at the "Altar of Kubrick", Infinite Gestation compares Arthur C. Clarke's novel to the 1968 film. While Kubrick's masterpiece to this day remains the benchmark for the realistic portrayal of science fiction on film, the medium itself leaves some narrative gaps that are not immediately apparent. Through written concurrently and under the best circumstances, the screenplay and novel (in some respects) travel in very different orbits. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968 film) - Stanley Kubrick 2001: A Space Odyssey (novel) by Arthur C. Clarke Arthur C. Clarke Stanley Kubrick Francis Ford Coppola Mario Puzo "Drawing Hands" (lithograph) by M.C. Escher Led Zeppelin - Presence (1976 album cover) Prime Directive (Star Trek) Contact (1997 American film) - Robert Zemekis Tycho Brahe Tycho (musician) Annie Hall 2010 (1984 film) - Peter Hyams Stargate Sequence (video) Childh

Our Man in Havana may have been compromised during the making of this episode. Partially inspired by his time in MI6 and set in late 1950's (pre-revolution) Cuba, Graham Greene's classic novel follows the daily maneuverings of vacuum salesman/secret agent Wormold, shortly after his unwitting recruitment in the men's room of the Wonder Bar. He initially invents his sources (taking names from a country club roster) as well as the information they provide to satisfy his superiors in London. But when he sends them sketches of vacuum cleaner parts suggested to be military installations in the mountains, he is pulled into a dangerous web of very real intrigue. Part spy novel, part comedic satire, this Graham Greene classic easily fits in the company of "The Big Lebowski" and "The Long Goodbye" and comes highly recommended for your Sunday read. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links Episode photo - detailed from the cover of Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene ©1958 V

In a recent blog post, George R.R. Martin has perhaps confirmed our worst fears: The Winds of Winter will not be published in time for the airing of Game of Thrones Season Six on HBO. But does it really matter? The two formats have already parted ways in terms of story and with the show poised to saunter out ahead of the books this spring, it simply begs the question: which is canon, the novels or the HBO series? Limited Gestation “Minisodes” bring you Infinite Gestation, generously portioned into a single serving. Much like the coffee creamer, concord grape jelly and sugar packets supplied by your local 24 hour diner, you can now enjoy a quick taste of Infinite Gestation without having to wait around for the check. Special Announcement: Beginning in February, the Infinite Gestation Podcast will be switching gears to bring you new episodes every two weeks. This will allow the panel more time to read, research, craft, record, edit and post quality episodes that you will love. We are also experimenting with v

Infinite Gestation breaks form to discuss Jack Kerouac's On the Road alongside Che Guevara's Motorcycle Diaries in a single episode. Motorcycle Diaries serves more as a memoir than a serious attempt at fiction, yet shares many notable commonalities with Kerouac's classic novel On the Road. Set on two very different continents, both narratives chronicle travels taken roughly around the same years by two (college educated) young men in their mid twenties. Kerouac had the benefit of many drafts with the goal of publication in mind, while Guevara holds his own with a well written travel journal that seems to have been revisited for editing and polishing long before it was published posthumously in 2004. Both are anti-establishment works insisting that there is "something rotten in Denmark" – though Guevara and Kerouac ultimately reached very different ends in the wake of a youthful idealistic wanderlust that consumed and informed their formidable years. Unfortunately, no cigars were burned in the recording of th

The Last Station is essentially concerned with the sunset chapter of Leo Tolstoy's life (with far less drinking than witnessed in "Last Call" – a film about Fitzgerald's final years). Decades after writing his masterworks, Tolstoy struggles with the prospect of leaving the copyright of his work to the Tolstoyan Movement at the insistence of its leader, Vladimir Chertkov, though to the absolute dismay of his wife, Sofya Tolstoy. Meanwhile, Valentin Fedorovich Bulgakov writes in his diary. The film features a stellar cast including Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, Paul Giamatti and James McAvoy. The narrative takes some liberties in assuming the viewer has a working knowledge of Tolstoy (possibly even garnered from reading the film's source material, The Last Station by Jay Parini) making it a bit inaccessible to the casual viewer. Bulgakov's romantic subplot is a cinematic addition and not historically accurate. While beautifully shot and superbly acted, the film leaves something to be desired. It is somewh

"Temperature" is the recent "lost & found" short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald which appears in the summer 2015 issue of Strand Magazine. The piece showcases the author's notable capabilities in the short story form, though it doesn't quite reveal itself to be something like a recovered masterpiece. The work dates from 1939 and contains some elements and themes that seem lifted directly from the last years of Fitzgerald's life (without too much embellishment). For more on this, check out our "Fitzgerald at the Movies - Last Call" episode. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links "Temperature" by F. Scott Fitzgerald F. Scott Fitzgerald Strand Magazine Andrew Gulli (Strand Editor) Fitzgerald at the Movies – Last Call (2002 Film) | Episode 015 The Deer Park by Norman Mailer "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Ernest Hemingway "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Curious Case of

By listener request, Infinite Gestation covers Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. More of a parable on spirituality than an actual novel, the book concerns a philosophical quest toward enlightenment, rendered in simple, straight-forward prose that may have lost some of its power through translation from the author's native German. The panel offers further reading recommendations for those that despise, enjoy or love this book. Some works by Timothy Leary come highly recommended. Also, Sam makes fun of Ayn Rand. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links Hermann Hesse Siddhartha The 4400 (TV Series) Tibetan Book of the Dead The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner & Richard Alpert Bhagavad Gita 21:54 Ayn Rand Asceticism Joseph Campbell All About H. Hatterr by G. V. Desani  Kahlil Gibran Gautama Buddha or Siddhartha Gautama

The recent "ethically questionable" publication of Haruki Murakami's reading list during his teenage years, as revealed by library records leaked to the press poses the question of the importance of knowing an author's influences. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Limited Gestation "Minisodes" bring you Infinite Gestation, generously portioned into a single serving. Much like the coffee creamer, concord grape jelly and sugar packets supplied by your local 24 hour diner, you can now enjoy a quick taste of Infinite Gestation without having to wait around for the check. Show Notes & Links Guardian Article - Librarians in uproar after borrowing record of Haruki Murakami is leaked Check out our Murakami Episode Georges Perec

Complete with its very own public service announcement, Infinite Gestation dedicates an episode to The Man in the High Castle, covering the 1962 novel by Philip K. Dick, in addition to the series currently streaming on Amazon. Among the first of a multitude of works by various authors to cover an alternate history in which the United States has lost World War II, Dick's atmospheric novel comes in at 253 pages (a fabulous Sunday read) – compared to the ten episode series. During this episode, major and minor departures in characters, story and plot find healthy debate throughout obsessive encyclopedic references, the ripe suggestion that Amazon "Peter Jacksoned the shit" out of the novel and more spoilers than you can shake a stick at, all topped off with some "final" final thoughts. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links Philip K. Dick The Man in the High Castle Blade Runner Minority Report (television series) Ridley Scott The Rise and Fall of the T

Based on Patrick's recommendation, Infinite Gestation covers Group Portrait with Lady by Heinrich Böll, with a (mostly) civil discussion. The work showcases Böll at the height of his craft (the novel was cited when he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1972) and may even lead one to conclude that Böll is indeed post war Germany's "literary therapist." Many times deemed experimental, the plot consists of the life of Leni Pfeiffer (the woman) written with journalistic flair by a fictional author using interviews with her family, friends and acquaintances to build the narrative alongside his own observations. Despite the setting (Germany, just prior to World War I and on into the 1970's) there is no shortage of humor in the novel, including posters of human anatomy used as apartment decor and a nun who divines the health of school girls by examining their feces. In the end, the novel comes highly recommended. Spoiler warning: Grant reveals the end of The Train Was On Time. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visi

Things get a bit dicey amongst the panel during a discussion of The End of the Tour. The 2015 film stars Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg as David Foster Wallace and David Lipspy respectively and concerns the final days of the Infinite Jest book tour (1996), during which Lipspy (writing for Rolling Stone Magazine) records interviews with Wallace for a piece that never materialized. The tapes later served as a basis for Lipspy's 2010 book Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself, from which the film was adapted. It should be noted that Patrick arrived with some “baggage” for this episode. No one was harmed in the recording of this podcast, though some sensibilities may have been offended. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links The End of the Tour (2015 film) - James Ponsoldt Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself by David Lipsky Inherent Vice (2014 film) - Paul Thomas Anderson Alanis Morisette  Th

November is National Novel Writing Month. While the goal of completing a rough draft of a novel in a thirty day period is certainly a noble one, the entire scope of such a task should come with some caveats – which Infinite Gestation is more than happy to provide. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links NaNoWriMo.org Kurt Vonnegut Martin Amis Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury  Philip K. Dick Isaac Asimov Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell Zeitgeist: the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time. Douglas Adams [su_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvAz9jU0ByU"][/su_youtube]

Resting somewhere between the format of film and the printed word, audiobooks offer a method of literature consumption that though similar to the physical act of reading, is in many ways quite different. Each format has its pros and cons: sacrifices of convenience, pace of the narrative, the ability to multitask, different levels of immersion and so on. The purists will argue tirelessly in favor of the virtues of reading the printed word while the busy-bodies champion the audiobook as a preferable alternative to the daily radio show during their respective commutes. Infinite Gestation dares to discover who is right. **Spoiler Warning - Specific plot points of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood are discussed.** Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links Ulysses by James Joyce 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Prior H. P. Lovecraft Episode Finnegans Wake by James Joyce Agora (2009 film) - Alejandro Amenábar Anna Karenin

The Handmaid's Tale is some serious business. Margret Atwood's classic dystopian novel remains notably fresh and relevant since its publication in 1985, and has become essential to the genre, among the company of George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Infinite Gestation consumed the novel via audio book (an experiment for a later episode) in preparation for this discussion. Follow @Infin8Gestation on Twitter • Visit InfiniteGestation.com Show Notes & Links The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (audio book) 1984 by George Orwell Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick The Iron Heel by Jack London We by  Yevgeny Zamyatin Brave New World by Aldous Huxley A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess First person narration (not second)